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Reaching over I put my hand on her head, “I can’t tell if you hit your head too hard or if you’re just inherently mental?”
“You offered me power,” she replied, smacking my hand away and glaring at me. “But did you really have it? Yes, you do—”
“Some power this is,” I snapped angrily. Did she not get it? “Donatella, if it wasn’t for you, I would have died today. The only person who had power today was you. And I…I, other than hand, was weak—”
“Borrowed power,” she yelled back and glared at me. “It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Knowing you’re alive thanks to the rule of some else! It makes you wonder… If not for them what would happen, right? Welcome the last twenty-six years of my damn life. Today, I didn’t save you. My brother did. These are his men, it’s his city. Like you so proudly reminded me last night. Ethan got all of this through birth and from there only made his position stronger. You are the same, if not greater. The people who are trying to kill you are terrified of you, that’s why they did this. Even with you an ocean away, with barely anyone around you, they cannot sleep at night, feeling you breathe down their necks. I don’t see weakness. I would have left you out there and thrown this ring back at you if I saw weakness. I see what your enemies see, a sleeping dragon. I’m the only woman who can make sure everyone knows you’re awake.”
She didn’t know who I was fighting.
She didn’t know what was I was facing, yet she said exactly what I needed to hear…and still managed to make herself the most important part of the conversation. It was a gift, one-part vanity, one-part sapience.
“Aren’t you worried you’ll only be borrowing power from me then?” I asked.
“No,” she replied reaching into her hair to take out a few leaves, tiny pieces of glass coming out, “the moment you put this ring on my finger, you sold half of everything you have to me.”
“Just like you did when you accepted?”
She sighed, frowning at me. “Must I say it?”
“You must.” I nodded eagerly.
“You’re alive, in the car with me… Aren’t I already sharing?”
“You just can’t say the words, can you?”
“Aren’t you in a mood now?” she retorted, obviously trying to change the subject, but I was having too much fun to turn back now.
“Nope.” I shook my head. “My fiancée made me feel much better.”
“Men are so damn fragile, always needing some part of themselves stroked,” she muttered under her breath, snickering, I looked from her to the “men” driving, however they looked like they didn’t even have any hair on their chests yet! The one in the passenger seat was even pressing the buttons on his video game.
“I must have hit my head much hard than I thought because I’m seeing teenagers…” I thought back to the where we’d come from. At that moment, I’d blocked out everything around me but now I couldn’t remember seeing anyone who wasn’t young. “Did they…”
The one driving caught my eye in the rear view and reached into his eardrum to pull out a small wireless earbud, music coming from it. “Did you say something, Sir?”
I shook my head. And he nodded, putting the earbud back in.
“When we were little, my mother would take my brother Ethan with her on these camping trips. As you can see, nothing in my family is normal. Camp for us was the place the guards went as a sort of pseudo vacation and training session,” she said, but I didn’t understand the connection until she went on. “When Ethan took over, he took her concept and applied it to under-privileged and orphaned teens throughout the country. Our shelter and community center helps give people part-time jobs in their community and with us. From there he finds the most… broken ones.”
“How broken?” I asked looking between the two in front.
“On the edge losing their minds broken. They may look like teens, but they’ve seen the worst of the world and the people in it. Ethan offers them a chance to be guards or part of our darker business. They get a safe place, shelter, food, and on top of that they are surrounded by people just like them. That makes it easier for them to form bonds with people without worrying that they’re being pitied or that people think they’re insane for having a much darker view of the world. In return, he simply asks for their best, and of course loyalty.”
“He’s growing an army,” I whispered to myself, more impressed than I cared to admit.
“Not just for him,” she said, looking out the window. “But for the next Ceann na Conairte…his future son. I hope he only has girls,” she muttered the last part under her breath.
I laughed. Why did I find that cute? I didn’t know. Donatella was like a box of fine chocolates. I never knew what I was getting with her. One moment she was ordering the death of multiple men, the next she was pouting like a toddler out the window.
“Sir, we’re here,” the boy in the front said as the gates of the mansion opened and we drove inside.
I glanced over to her and outstretched my hand.
“We aren’t that close yet,” she said to me, opening the door herself before the car had even stopped and stepping out gracefully.
“This is going to be a long sixty-one point two-one years.” I smiled to myself as the door opened for me. O’Phelan stood at the top of the stairs staring down at both of us, and what a sight we must have been; bruised, blood, dirt, and smoke covered. A maid rushed down offering Dona a hot towel.
She didn’t say word, just walked up the stairs and inside without me. Ignoring the rest of the people around us, I followed.
